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February 14

Happy New Year! It has already been an exciting start to 2018 for UWE and we look forward to bringing you more exciting and interesting game experiences. The core of NS2’s development has always been the community. So many people from around the world dedicating time, opinions and skills to help make this game what it is today. Five years in and we are still working with dedicated members, new and old, to make the game better and more enjoyable.

Today we release Update 321, bringing you some of the first new gameplay features to come in 2018. First we wanted to look at some of the alien features that haven’t felt complete. Onos Stampede is a great way to really immerse yourself into the large beast and finally feel like an alien gorilla on the warpath, using your body to buck and shove almost anything out of your way using the existing Charge ability. Special thank you to Steelcap for all the hard work and many revisions to get this into the game.

Next, Babblers also see some love with the addition of the Babbler Mine. No longer sitting on the sidelines of an attack, the babblers can stay in an egg and placed like a proximity mine to hatch on unsuspecting marines and harass with more aggression than ever before. Special thank you also to Katzenfleisch for all the hard work and many revisions to get this into the game.

Finally, this update includes a nod to our co-workers on the Subnautica team. With the release of Subnautica and it taking part within the same universe of NS2 we found it only fitting to throw some in-game love their way. Rantology has worked up a couple cool new shoulder patches and they are free to everyone!

There is more to this update below in the changelog so take a look and then get in there to play with the new stuff. Big shoutout to our Playtesters for all the extra PT time this update, you always make the difference. Enjoy!

Changelog

Gameplay

Onos Stampede (contributed by Steelcap)

A long desired addition to round out the Onos Charge ability; where a charging Onos will now push Marines out of the way while doing 12 damage.

Exosuits feel the impact too, but are heavier so they barely get pushed and stop Oni in their tracks.

Requires 72% of charge’s top speed to be reached in order to work

Onos charge ability has had it’s acceleration increased ~35%

Added two new sound events for when Onos impact Marines and Exos (contributed by Sweets)

This is something that just feels "right" for Onos. No longer will a 2-ton space gorilla/rhino be stopped dead in its tracks by a puny 180-pound human when barreling down a hallway. This should aid in Oni being unable to escape poorly positioned situations where they would otherwise be body blocked.Great job Steelcap!

Babbler Eggs can be placed on walls or ceilings now to be an effective mine.

Babbler Eggs placed by gorges will no longer hatch immediately after being built

Gorges can hatch them if they choose to via the Use Key

If you hatch the babbler mine manually, they will automatically attach to you

Babbler Eggs will hatch when enemies get too close, quickly disposing of any hapless marines that weren't paying attention.

Babbler Eggs can be hatched at a distance by their Gorge hitting it with Spit.

They have a range of 200 to 300 hp based upon maturity, which takes 20 seconds.

They can do up to 40 initial damage when exploding on a Marine when fully matured, and proportionately less damage when not matured.

Babbler Mines can be scanned by observatories

We wanted to do something to help gorges in the early game and create something interesting, tactically. This feature adds a lot of depth to gorge-play, we feel. Marines will soon learn that not all gorges should be chased.Thanks to Katzenfleisch for all his hard work on this feature!

Attacks will now land more reliably but they can still be dodged (don’t stand still or backpedal Marines!)

Significantly increased speed of Babbler bait ball, allowing it to be used over much greater distances and with more accuracy. It now behaves more like a fast moving projectile instead of a lobbed grenade.

Bait ball now uses the first surface touched as the location for babblers to go to.

Fixed bug where Babblers would become unresponsive if their set target was too far away.

Fixed bug where Babblers would not consistently attack their target after moving within attack range.

Babblers now attack as a pack when given an attack order.

Unit Status now shown for Babbler Eggs to show their status and built percentage.

Babblers will now cling to friendlies much more consistently

Marine weapons purchased by players or commanders and intentionally dropped within a very short range of Armories will no longer expire. (contributed by Katzenfleisch)

Killed Marines will always have an expiration timer for their dropped weapons, regardless of distance to armory.

We felt that it was restrictive that players with an excess amount of resources - be they field players or commanders - who purchased weapons for their teammates, had to have their teammates pick them up within a quick amount of time. Now they can be picked up at any time, provided it was an intentional drop and very close to the armory.

Flamethrowers

Increased Pres cost to 20 from 15

Decreased direct damage to 12 from 15

Removed the immediate damage applied to flame puddles when they first appear. (8 dmg) This provides Aliens a chance to get out of harm’s way.

While on fire, Alien lifeforms now only take damage for 2.1 seconds after the direct attack has ceased - structures will still burn for up to 6 seconds depending on how long the attack is sustained.

Decreased Flame puddle radius to 1.8m from 3m.

Some subtle tweaks were necessary after fixing Update 320’s Flamethrower implementation, based upon resounding feedback from the community in public playtest sessions. Players felt that being on fire for 6 seconds after leaving the room felt unfair, and that the Pres cost was not remotely punitive enough when rushing the tech, nor was it reflective of the weapons new capabilities.

Tweaks / Improvements

Two new Marine Shoulder Patches added for all NS2 owners to celebrate Subnautica’s release, Leviathan and Peeper.

Commanders can now group select multiple entities and the action buttons will be contextually appropriate for what is selected (contributed by Katzenfleisch)

Cancel button for Commanders now shows when you expect it to (when blueprints are involved) and the Recycle button when appropriate, and does so in the bottom right of the commander UI area. (contributed by Katzenfleisch)

Improved Gorges ability to build their structures when placing in hard to reach spots (i.e. ceilings above the Gorge, or tight corners). This eliminates the need to jump and healspray in most circumstances. (contributed by Katzenfleisch)

Smoothed out a lot of the performance hits caused by using phase gates and distress beacons. There will also no longer be any lag time between when a marine phases through and when they see what is in the new location. See SDK section "RelevancyPortals" below for details.

Gone are the days when you could phase through a phase gate and die before you even knew you were being chewed on. Now, you may still die but you won't be so confused.

Optimized the routines that checks if a point is inside a trigger entity. This reduces occurrences of small hitches in the early game when lights are being updated per their map location.

Fixes

Fixed bug with Babblers causing script errors when their target wasn’t considered alive. (contributed by Katzenfleisch)

Fixed issue in Light Handlers that causes duplicate calls for map lights to be updated when after they were already updated for the current render frame. This significantly reduces the cost for map lighting changes (i.e. Power Node damaged / destroyed) as the game progresses.

Fixed that sometimes the concede sequence wouldn't play.

Fixed Healspary causing Marine structures to show their flinch/damaged animation. (contributed by Katzenfleisch)

Fixed Marine waypoints staying applied to Alien lifeforms after line of sight was lost.

Fixed a rare script error that would occur when a new hive was created.

Fixed an issue where attempting to play a blank-named sound via a network message would cause a script error.

Fixed most cases of enemy icons sticking on the minimap when they should no longer be visible.

Added a nil check to OrdersMixin.lua to prevent a harmless edge-case script error.

Fixed an issue that would cause the server time to drift out of sync with the client time on a listen server. This would eventually cause permanent red-plugging on listen servers. (This may help those who experience issues with Skulk Challenge)

Fixed a rare issue where clients would experience a massive game-freezing hitch whenever a power node's power-state changed.

Fixed an error that would occur if a spectator was able to see a ReadyRoom player who also had a health bar (required the RR player to somehow get onto the actual map)

Maps

Caged

Fixed issue introduced in Update 320 where some of the Location names did not show on map. #BlameMcGlaspie

Mineshaft

Fixed stuck spot preventing Marine and Fades from being able to walk through vent entrance in north-western area of Cave.

This selects edges in a directional flow. Example: it will select an entire row or column in a regular grid, or the entire cap of a cylinder. Selects the adjacent edges that are closest to parallel with the starting edge.

Fixed RMB+drag issue that caused mouse cursor oddities

Reworked s_stats debugging command to display more details of playing sound events and internal resources of the sound system.

Known Issues

There are still some edge cases where enemy units will remain visible on the minimap when they should not be visible (however nothing new introduced in this update).

Weapons that do not expire near the armory will still contain their additional ammo pack as all dropped weapons do. This means players who may walk over those ammo packs might receive them, and thus a future Marine who picks up a weapon may only have a single magazine worth of ammunition. Not a huge issue considering you’re at melee range to an armory already anyways, but worth mentioning as we could not resolve this in time.

December 22, 2017

"Twas the night before Gorgemas when all through the base, Not a creature was stirring not even a MAC; The Hydras were placed by the Command Station with care, In hopes that Saint Gorgie, soon would be there..."

Tis the season of gift giving and holiday cheer, so with that in mind we bring you Update 320. We’ve got some balance tweaks, visual improvements, and stability fixes for you this season. A huge thanks to Katzenfleisch for his many contributions this patch!

We’d like the take a moment and address some of the mod/client/server issues that started this week. Earlier this week Valve pushed out an update on the way clients access and use the version of workshop NS2 utilizes. As a result NS2 clients and servers can no longer access the workshop content. Thanks to some coding magic by Ghoul and McGlaspie, we have a temporary fix that will be released with Update 320, please be aware that some users may experience slightly longer load times as a result of this workaround (the more mods the longer it will take). We want to stress that this is a temporary fix and that server operators have been encouraged to setup mod backup servers to help keep games going if we continue to run into issues.

Our team is in communication with Valve and working to find a long term solution to the issue and we will be posting more in the next couple weeks as we figure out just what that permanent fix is going to be.

We hope you enjoy your holidays and stay tuned for more to come. Merry Gorgemas!

Changelog

Gameplay

Exosuits - Based on resounding community feedback, these are temporary interim changes to slightly nerf Exos, to allow us time to redesign them entirely through proper testing in following updates.

Increased purchase costs to 55 pres (from 45)

So marines can’t get them too early into the round and to make buying an Exo a significant investment again, as well as potentially limiting the ability to just re-purchase after a quick death.

Decreased the base (0% charged) damage of a railgun to 10 from 33. Each railgun shot now deals only up to 150 (instead of 173) damage fully charged without any weapon upgrade researched.

A lower base dmg should help encourage fuller charges and diminish the likelihood of cheap “chipping” kills from immediately tapping fire, especially as follow up shots.

You can no longer simultaneously charge both railguns at all. You can only charge one at a time.

This, along with the base dmg decrease, should prevent the "Double Tap" issue that can result in a near instant ~250 dmg output by skilled railgun shooters. Feeling like you were being killed by one shot was an incredibly frustrating experience for the community.

Flamethrower - Based on community feedback, our previous Flamethrower buffs were not enough for the weapon to feel viable on it’s own. Please try these changes thoroughly before providing your updated feedback!

This affects Babbler, Resource Tower, Hive, Player and any other ragdolls from blocking any following damage or bullets. This is quite a notable change for the attentive shooter, and we think it feels much more responsive. Let us know what you think!

Tweaks / Improvements

Optimized the update routine for unit status HUD elements:

Health and armor bars of targeted units now update instantly.

Removed the annoying pulsate effect of the repair icons.

Improved map overviews

Fixed an issue where mini-maps would exhibit z-fighting, resulting in mini-maps that appeared to be missing certain details (eg crates).

Fixed an issue where the area the mini-map is rendered would not line up correctly with the minimap_extents object placed in the editor.

Added multisampling to greatly improve the quality of the generated mini-maps.

Fixed an issue where vent coloring would be incorrect/inconsistent.

Fixed an issue where some objects would incorrectly be colored vent-like (eg Repair room in Mineshaft had many yellow objects on the mini-map -- yet has no vents).

All vanilla maps now have higher resolution mini-maps!

Note to Mappers: ALL CUSTOM MAPS MUST BE UPDATED FOR THE MAP TO BE ACCURATE! Before re-rendering the mini-map for your level, open the level in the editor, and re-save it. Otherwise, the newly generated mini-map will not line up correctly with the in-game icons.

Improved quality of cloaked aliens shader effect for Marines.

All models and props that were not hand-made by level designers that emit a glow, will now change to match the current light color when power nodes are destroyed or repaired (code contributed by Nin). As a result unpowered locations will appear to be much more consistent now.

Note to Mappers: Please read the SDK section, as there is an explanation on how this change impacts your maps. By default, no changes are need and it will work correctly with all maps.

Fixed that you are able to select both movable and non-movable entities at the same time, resulting in a "invalid" sound each time an order is given to that group (even if all the movable entities are following that order). This happens especially with cysts and crag/shift/etc.

Fixed not being able to cancel an action given while a group of entities was selected.

Fixed having all the movable selected entities going to the same exact point when asking them to move, resulting in entity stacking. They should now distance themselves automatically when arriving at their destination.

Note: It is still possible to *manually* stack entities if one tries hard enough, but it should no longer occur automatically when moving groups.

Fixed client crash with sound system when device is reset or client closes.

Fixed client crash during physics update when collision objects were create or read from multiple threads.

Fixed client crash where in some rare cases, starting a listen server with a mod enabled that had model resource content would crash when loading a map.

Fixed that the curl multi interface doesn't exit when the easy interface times out and thus the given network connection is never closed. Based on the number of players connecting this can cause a server's network interface to overload / show redplugs.

This was a major issue that we discovered when Hive temporarily went down, and while Hive’s issue was permanently fixed, we wanted to doubly ensure it could not negatively affect servers going forward.

Fixed that spectator slot users could not join a playing team, after a player slot user joined the spectator team in a full server.

This also fixes spectators from joining a team while a player who was guaranteed a playerslot is connecting. As a result, this should also fix most cases where the playercount was able to eventually show negative numbers in the browser.

Fixed that veterans couldn’t spectate in rookie only servers.

Fixed that Auto pickup of a Welder would also auto switch to it, even in combat.

Weapon pickup now behaves much more like you’d expect : you still pick up weapons automatically when walking over them, but if you want to swap weapons, you can now look at specific dropped weapons to pick them up within a pile of different weapons. Additionally, standing on top of a pile of welders will no longer hijack your “drop weapon” key, preventing you from swapping out weapons within that pile for a welder you already own.

Fixed that the quickplay_ready server flag didn’t work. Also added it as an option to the serverconfig, which defaults to enabled. Server operators do not have to rely on mods anymore to remove their server from the quick play queue.

Fixed that entity ragdolls did not dissolve properly or on time.

Fixed that Babblers did not detach when their parent died. (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed that the Babbler’s collision boxes were not removed correctly when an attached babbler got destroyed causing aliens to become invincible around the babbler attachment points in the world. (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed that certain structure’s range circles did not show up while placing them. (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed that phasing through a Phase Gate could fail due to a server/client time desync (Contributed by Nin).

Note: This only fixes one of the possible conditions where this bug can occur. Fixed that the lights flickered when a destroyed/unsocketed/blueprint Power Node was attacked by Aliens, or when any Powernode state was attacked by Marines. (Contributed by Nin).

Fixed that Skulk bots tried to evolve to higher life forms including all available upgrades even if they don’t have enough personal resources, causing them to stay still until they have the needed resources.

Fixed that buildings that require orientation before placement (Phase Gates, Robotics Factory) would change their *position* (not just orientation) when the commander clicked once and moved their camera. (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed a script error occuring because the jetpack flying sound wasn’t stopped when the Jetpack was destroyed (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed that the Kill-Feed did not show the healspray kill icon when they gorge had the bile bomb or the babler bait selected (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed that commander couldn’t place new structures while having enemy units selected (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed that some alien structures’ impact were not removed from the navigation mesh after they got repositioned (Contributed by Katzenfleisch).

Fixed that you can damage a un-fully repaired PowerNode with every Alien damage ability except with Bilebomb

Maps

All maps have been updated to better utilize the glow toggling effect (when power is destroyed). As a result, the auxiliary power will now be more visually uniform. Some additional changes were added to toggle objects like holograms on/off when the power goes out.

Changes contributed by Zavaro:

Tram

Fixed stuck spots in Repair around the tech point

Added missing occlusion to southern Repair entrance

Fixed occlusion issue in east vent in Ore

Added more robust collision geometry in east vent in Ore to prevent stuck spots

Fixed lighting issues in North Tunnels

Refinery

Removed two invulnerable Gorge locations in Conduit (NE and SE corners of the room)

Added method for Marines to jump into Chasm-Containment vent

Fixed stuck spot on stairs north of Flow Control

Fixed spots around Exchange where cysts could be placed inside pipes

Docking

Removed invulnerable Gorge location in Stability above the vent

Descent

Fixed stuck spot in Fluid Transfer

Mineshaft

Fixed unaligned props near Repair Room

Fixed hole in Deposit’s moving crates that allowed players to exit the map

SDK

Note to Mappers: ALL CUSTOM MAPS MUST BE UPDATED FOR THE MAP TO BE ACCURATE! Before re-rendering the mini-map for your level, open the level in the editor, and re-save it. Otherwise, the newly generated mini-map will not line up correctly with the in-game icons.

Graphics

Material files used as layered effects (eg the distortion material used for cloaked aliens) can now use "%inherit" as a texture name, meaning it will use the base material's texture in its place. As a result, cloaked aliens now appear more detailed, since the normal map can now be used. Before, only the vertex normals were available for generating the distortion map.

Editor

There is a new “Emissive matches power” drop-down option for level-props. By default this option is set to true. All level Models (props) used by the game can now potentially be affected by a Location’s power-state. The emissive channel in said model’s materials is toggled off when there is no power or the auxiliary lights are active. Mappers have control over which props are affected at run-time. In order for this to be applied to a map, it simply needs to be open and re-saved. To control the effect mappers will need to selectively choose which props are excluded from being changed by a location’s power.

Added a new option to the texture tool that will cause it to attempt to align textures by their seams when copying the texture from one face to an adjacent on.

Added options for prop placement, including align-to-surface, and randomize \rotation.

Fixed a crash that occurred when trying to select a sound file.

Fixed that selecting multiple layers was difficult/impossible.

Fixed that sometimes the drawing tools would cut into invisible faces.

Fixed that double-click-selecting a large interconnected piece of geometry would sometimes crash the editor.

Known Issues

NS2+ percentage unit-status option updates too slowly (every 200ms)

While the flickering issue was resolved, fixing the update rate of this NS2+ option will require the base game to be refactored due to the way this option hooks into the game. This is a goal for our next patch.

Tram’s Logistics Hologram will be off when the power is in an unbuilt / neutral state.

The inability to charge your secondary railgun simultaneously is not currently communicated through the HUD.

Not all map overviews are 100% accurate, with some connecting room areas showing as not being connected on the map. This is going to require mappers making per item changes over the next few weeks through our extensions mod. We apologize for not having this feature in perfect condition upon release, but we felt the benefits provided by it justified the temporary downsides.

Not all room lights are updated to take advantage of the Emissive power state changes (eg: Hangar Bay on Kodiak). This is another issue that will require mappers making per item changes over the few weeks, and was a feature we felt while not perfect yet, should be included for feedback as it was improvement over the current state of things.

Reviews

"NS2 is a genius mash of Counter Strike and Starcraft" – Kotaku"This is getting close to my idea of the ultimate game" – Machinima

About This Game

Natural Selection 2 pits alien against human in an action-packed struggle for survival. Wield devastating weaponry as a Frontiersman marine, or become the xenomorph as a deadly Kharaa lifeform.

Strategy Meets Shooter

Natural Selection 2 is a First Person Shooter and Real Time Stategy game rolled into one! Each team, alien and human, has a Commander. The Commander looks down on the battlefield and issues orders, places structures, collects resources, researches technology, and deploys abilities.

Here are some gameplay examples: A human Commander could drop health packs and ammunition to a trapped marine squad, and deploy sentry guns to help them defend their position. Or an alien Commander could grow a new Hive to spread infestation throughout newly captured territory, allowing more alien eggs to spawn...

Two Unique Sides

Aliens players choose to evolve into one of five lifeforms: The fast, fearsome Skulk can run on walls and deliver massive damage with its jaws. Lerks fly and deploy gasses to support their teammates in battle. Gorges heal other lifeforms and build tunnels, hydra turrets, walls, and other tactical structures. Fades blink in and out of battle, picking off marines with giant scythes. Finally, the giant Onos is so massive and so tough, that even entire marine squads can't take it down.

Marines wield rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, pistols, and other weapons. Cluster grenades can clear ventilation shafts of sneaky Skulks, flamethrowers make short work of alien structures and infestation, and boosts dropped by the Commander increase combat effectiveness.

When attacking on foot doesn't cut it, marines can construct hulking Exosuits wielding miniguns and railguns, and equip jetpacks for high speed assaults on alien Hives.

Long Term Development

Mod Tools Come Standard

Natural Selection 2 comes with all the tools we used to make the game. All game code is open source. That means you can create, and play, an endless variety of mods. Publish, share, and download mods from the Steam Workshop, and automatically download mods when you join modded games.

Digital Deluxe Edition

Digital Deluxe Edition includes:

Official Soundtrack - 1 hour of tribal, industrial music composed by David John and Simon Chylinski

Digital Art Book - 40+ pages of art by Cory Strader, including environments, creatures, weapons and more